Methods for nucleic acid amplification and detection of amplification products assist in the detection, identification, quantification and sequence analysis of nucleic acid sequences. Nucleic acid amplification is an important step in the construction of libraries from related genes such as, for example antibodies. These libraries can be screened for antibodies having specific, desirable activities. Nucleic acid analysis is important for detection and identification of pathogens, detection of gene alteration leading to defined phenotypes, diagnosis of genetic diseases or the susceptibility to a disease, assessment of gene expression in development, disease and in response to defined stimuli, as well as the various genome projects. Other applications of nucleic acid amplification method include the detection of rare cells, detection of pathogens, and the detection of altered gene expression in malignancy, and the like. Nucleic acid amplification is also useful for qualitative analysis (such as, for example, the detection of the presence of defined nucleic acid sequences) and quantification of defined gene sequences (useful, for example, in assessment of the amount of pathogenic sequences as well as the determination of gene multiplication or deletion, and cell transformation from normal to malignant cell type, etc.). The detection of sequence alterations in a nucleic acid sequence is important for the detection of mutant genotypes, as relevant for genetic analysis, the detection of mutations leading to drug resistance, pharmacogenomics, etc.
There are many variations of nucleic acid amplification, for example, exponential amplification, linked linear amplification, ligation-based amplification, and transcription-based amplification. One example of exponential nucleic acid amplification method is polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which has been disclosed in numerous publications. See, for example, Mullis et al. Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. 51:263-273 (1986); Mullis K. EP 201,184; Mullis et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,788; Erlich et al. EP 50,424, EP 84,796, EP 258,017, EP 237,362; and Saiki R. et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,194. In fact, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the most commonly used target amplification method. PCR is based on multiple cycles of denaturation, hybridization of two different oligonucleotide primers, each to opposite strand of the target strands, and primer extension by a nucleotide polymerase to produce multiple double stranded copies of the target sequence.
Amplification methods that employ a single primer, have also been disclosed. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,508,178; 5,595,891; 5,683,879; 5,130,238; and 5,679,512. The primer can be a DNA/RNA chimeric primer, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,744,308.
Some amplification methods use template switching oligonucleotides (TSOs) and blocking oligonucleotides. For example, a template switch amplification in which chimeric DNA primer are utilized is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,679,512; 5,962,272; 6,251,639 and by Patel et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 93:2969-2974 (1996).
However the previously described target amplification methods have several drawbacks. For example, the transcription base amplification methods, such as Nucleic Acid Sequence Based Amplification (NASBA) and transcription mediated amplification (TMA), are limited by the need for incorporation of the polymerase promoter sequence into the amplification product by a primer, a process prone to result in non-specific amplification. Another example of a drawback of the current amplification methods is the requirement of two binding events which may have optimal binding at different temperatures as well as the use of primers containing naturally occurring sequences. This combination of factors results in increased likelihood of mis-priming and resultant amplification of sequences other than the target sequence.
Therefore, there is a need for improved nucleic acid amplification methods that overcome these drawbacks. The invention provided herein fulfills this need and provides additional benefits.